Toyota Prius Production to Resume on March 28

After nearly two weeks of continuous bad news for Japanese auto maker Toyota and right after the car maker announced that the production at its plants in the US might be affected by the Japanese production freeze, Toyota said on Thursday that it would resume work on March 28 at the Tsutsumi and Toyota Motor Kyushu, the facilities which produce the Toyota Prius and the Lexus CT 250h and HS 250h.

This is the first time when Toyota is clear on the date when some of the production is resumed. For the past two weeks, the manufacturer acknowledged repeatedly that it cannot say when work is restarted.

In Japan, some of its facilities will remain nonoperational beyond March 28, while the production of parts for the vehicles it sells on the local and foreign markets has been resumed last week.

The launch program for the car maker's new models has also been affected by the twin disaster of March 11. The wagon version of the Prius hybrid, the Prius v, was supposed to be launched by the end of next month. Now, the launch has been delayed indefinitely in Japan, while in the US the end of the summer remains the most likely date for the introduction of the model.

The US operations have not yet been affected by the events in Japan, but Toyota did issue a warning to its partners today that interruptions are to be expected. The auto maker was unable to say when or for how long the interruptions will occur.